Timeline for Fired from job - left my Gmail, Stack Exchange, LinkedIn, and other personally owned accounts logged in. How do I proceed?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 5, 2019 at 19:36 | comment | added | Dan W | @WoJ – I think your concerns are valid – on further thought I realise that not all companies would keep company data centrally, or would it be common for users to wipe & rebuild machines. I've added a big warning to remind people they should only wipe a machine if it's appropriate. I think this answer still provides useful information, so if you're happy with that disclaimer then do you think this answer is worth keeping? Otherwise happy to delete. | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 19:31 | history | edited | Dan W | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Added a warning based on concerns in comments.
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| Sep 5, 2019 at 15:05 | comment | added | Dan W | I think this depends very much on the industry and jurisdiction. In the industry I worked in, there should never be data on a workstation machine belonging to the company which isn’t correctly and securely stored in the right repositories. I’m not talking about ownership of the local machine, but administration, so no licensing issues. Machines were provided clean, and returning them clean wasn’t uncommon, and was pretty much the responsible option. Obviously if you work as an admin in a car mechanics or something, this is NOT the right thing to do! | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 14:58 | comment | added | WoJ | @DanW: owning the whole content of a company machine is unusual. Beside the licensing issues it may be complicated from a legal standpoint if you have no due diligence on the content. But this is very dependent on the jurisdiction. Now - if you erase a company machine without being asked for that and there is a need to do forensics on it you end up in the situation where you destroyed potential evidence. Willingly (as in not by mistake). This is not a situation one wants to be in. The problem is not the expected data which should indeed be backed up - it is the everything else. | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 14:40 | comment | added | Mark Rotteveel | You're still deliberately destroying data on a machine that is owned by the company. This could be a criminal offense, and if you part on bad terms, you are just giving them more ammunition for civil or criminal complaints. | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 12:08 | comment | added | Dan W | @WoJ if wiping your machine erases company records, they’ve got a bigger problem as they’ve got no backups or disaster recovery. What would they do if your HD failed? Only the tiniest of companies should be without backups of company data. | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 12:06 | comment | added | Dan W | @WoJ good point about SSDs though. partedmagic.com/secure-erase seems to be the best bet for SSDs. Wasn’t an issue for us as multi-TB SSDs weren’t a thing last time I needed it. | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 11:58 | comment | added | Dan W | @WoJ depends on your company. In my situation all non-personal data was kept on shared drives and source control. Devs had almost complete autonomy over their workstations (HW & SW) - by wiping them, we returned them the the condition we were given them. If you’re not in that situation, you probably shouldn’t be using the machine for anything personal. | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 11:39 | comment | added | WoJ | This is a very dangerous advice. You are directly attacking your company computer and erasing company records. which is an extraordinarily bad idea. Not to mention that this is not useful with SSDs. | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 9:13 | comment | added | Dan W | @SolarMike – yes, you need physical access, so as I said this is no use to the OP. I felt it was worth mentioning as others are likely to find this thread if searches around removing personal data from work PCs. | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 9:11 | comment | added | Solar Mike | Do you need access to the machine, which the OP did not have as they were walked out the door? Or is this software that wipes the machine if you don't enter a password every 20 minutes or so? | |
| Sep 5, 2019 at 9:09 | history | answered | Dan W | CC BY-SA 4.0 |